Big numbers are one way to appreciate Tesla’s gargantuan Nevada Gigafactory. Operating 24-hours per day in shifts, workers produce enough battery packs and drive units in a week to power 5,300 of Tesla’s Model 3 sedans.

Since the great recession, the Reno-Sparks economy has been on a roll — unemployment rates have plummeted and capital investments made by game-changing companies have surged. Mike Kazmierski, president and CEO of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, has been helping lead the charge and keep the pace since arriving in Reno in 2011.

Home prices impact our businesses and our lives. Real estate statistics impact how we view the market. So, when the Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors announced that the median home price in Reno reached $400K in March, we all took notice. But, this measure of the real estate market is not as simple as is presented. What does median home price mean?

This one’s for the little guys. Five Reno startups, including a company that caters to endurance athletes and one that specializes in connected products — the Internet of Things in geek speak — were recognized by city and state officials on Tuesday for raising funding and creating high-paying jobs in the Biggest Little City.

The struggle of MedMen president and co-founder Andrew Modlin to get in that one, final snip serves as an almost poetic metaphor for the challenges faced by any company that tries to get into the legal marijuana business. Just like his cannabis firm transitioned from an upstart company into a major player in a multibillion-dollar industry through the efforts of several people, however, Modlin eventually manages to cut through the chunky ribbon with a little bit of help. A year and a half since breaking ground just 10 miles east of Reno-Sparks, MedMen’s large, state-of-the-art cannabis factory was officially unveiled to the assembled crowd.

We recently hosted the largest and most exciting technology conference in the history of Reno-Sparks: the VentureBeat Blueprint conference, an event that looked at ways to expand high tech across the country. In attendance were more than 300 tech executives and government leaders from more than 40 states, many that had never been here before!

The poster in the lobby of Intelligent Lifecycle Solutions says it all: “Protect Mother Earth!” Deeper inside the cavernous warehouse in industrial Sparks, three dozen workers are doing just that by dismantling — “destroying,” in company lingo — countless discarded computers, cell phones and assorted other electronics, all in the name of sustainability.